rediff.com Travel: Safarnama: A travel feature on doing India by road

Day 10: Orchha - Datia - Gwalior

Route: Orcha - Jhansi: SH 6
Jhansi - Datia: SH 37
Datia - Gwalior: NH 37

Come morning and we were on the road again. We drove across the river, having read that the view of the chattris is very good from the other side. I am not so sure of the view being better. I like them up and close. But the other side did look like a nice place to head out to with a picnic basket and a book.

After shooting the locals having a bath in the river, (under the pretext of photographing the chattris) we headed on to Datia

A little out of Orchha and we were confronted with quite a scary sight -- a batmanesque Tempo. Wasn't surprising that the 'thing' had broken down, unfortunately for us... Right in the middle of the narrow road. The passengers in the tempo were in no rush to get anywhere, so why should we be?? We had no choice but to wait for the tempo driver to fix his steed.

A few kilometers further and we came across Taragram, a local small scale industrial unit where they make hand made paper; paper with a difference -- it is made from cloth! Their products are a little over priced but we bought something anyway as a gesture of support and appreciation. If you ask, you can be taken around and shown the works. Do that, it was quite educational.

We had heard that the Jhansi fort, while imposing from the outside (and no doubt a famous and important part of Indian history) was not all that special from inside. A little rushed for time we decided to give it a miss. We nevertheless did drive around the fort (looking for the road to Datia).

Datia

Datia is a crowded little village with narrow lanes. The streets are lined with sweet marts, bangle sellers, cloth merchants etc. We were trying to find the Govind Mandir Palace that we had heard about. The palace is perched on top of a hill, the village winds its way down the hill. The caretakers can be found around the entrance to the palace. They made us enter our names in a register. Surprisingly we found a lot of names down in there, given that the place is not very popular and holds but one palace. Nevertheless it seemed like Datia is more popular with foreign tourists than Indian!

You can look around the palace on your own, however you need the caretaker to give you access to the higher storeys. You also need the guide to tell you that the palace is NOT a palace... Bir Singh Deo built it as a guesthouse. It is nonetheless know as the Govind Mandir Palace.

The palace is seven storeys high and built in perfect symmetry; evident when looking down any of the corridors and especially when looking down from the top.

The basement and the first floor are very dark and musty and infested with bats. The basement was used as a jail, while the first floor housed the royal party's staff. From the second floor, five storeys of beautiful architecture -- a mix between the Mughal and Rajput styles -- spirals upwards into the sky. The palace has beautiful towers each with balconies running on the sides, intricate cornices and finely decorated ceilings.

Some of the lattice work and construction detail is really beautiful. The views from the top of the guesthouse are spectacular; of the green countryside and various other buildings from the same period. The fort looked impressive from a distance but according to our guide is pretty empty and uninteresting.

Datia lowdown

This would have to be my favourite site . I was tired of run down buildings which required so much imagination to be really appreciated. This palace stands on its own. It's a beautiful building requiring no frills to impress. The city too looked like an interesting place to walk around. Seemed like the kind of place where you could lose your self for a couple of days without being 'pressured' to constantly run to the next famous monument.

After a quick stop at Datia, we headed on towards Gwalior. By the time we made it to Gwalior we were quite tired and hungry. It took us a while to search out a decent hotel. After food and rest we headed out to the fort. In summer, a strong recommendation would be to take it easy in the afternoon. The sun is too strong to be outside.

Gwalior is not a very easy city to navigate. It has lots of small little lanes and bylanes, many of which are hard to find on a map. So if you are driving to the fort then leave early. We finally made it to the fort close to closing time and had no option but to take a quick walk around before the gates closed.

But the sunset from the fort is absolutely spectacular. The views of the surrounding city and countryside are quite amazing and the setting 'desert sun' provides quite a show of colour. It is obvious that many locals take a walk up to the fort in the evenings to escape the city dust and noise. Since the fort also has many peacocks, it is worth spending a little while on the fort walls watching the peacocks go about their daily duties. A local youngster told us that the sound and lights show at the Gwalior fort is very good, narrated by the Big B (Amitabh Bachhan).

Coming up: A sojourn in Agra

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